There are three major stakeholders in a school system — students, staff and taxpayers.

If Monmouth withdraws from the RSU, all three groups will lose.

The students will be faced with yet another administrative transition, which diverts precious resources from teaching and learning. The loss of funding will also impact many programs currently offered, both curricular and extra-curricular.

More than 90 percent of the Monmouth school staff polled indicated they thought Monmouth should stay in the RSU. They have lived through the tough times of the transition and support the leadership and plans that are in place today. That is an overwhelming vote of confidence from the very individuals who educate our students.

Taxpayers in Monmouth will also be forced to pay more. We will pay more to do what we do today. We will pay more to complete the transition out of the RSU. We will pay more to deal with our decaying facilities.

If withdrawing meant we could provide the same or better services to our students for less than we are paying today, I would be the first to vote for it. The problem is the numbers do not add up.

Many are making withdrawal sound too good to be true. That is because it is.

I cannot, and will not, support paying more in taxes for our students and staff to get less. That is just a bad decision.

Jim Grandahl, Monmouth